Principal Investigators should note that these changes will impact proposals to sponsors that have been willing to pay the above charges as “fees” but currently disallow “tuition” charges. This means that PIs will no longer be able to budget for fees if in fact these charges are now more appropriately termed tuition.

How sponsors will react to the change in classification of such charges under existing awards is not yet known. SPO will provide additional information on this as it becomes available.

May 13, 2011

The U.S. Department of Education announced that the fiscal year 2011 Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) Comprehensive Program has been cancelled because “Congressional action on the FY 2011 budget substantially reduced funds available.” The program application deadline had been May 23, 2011.

The FIPSE Comprehensive Program supports reforms, innovations, and significant improvements of postsecondary education that respond to problems of national significance and serve as national models. The FY 2011 program announcement had estimated “$20,347,000 for awards under this competition. The actual level of funding, if any, depends on final congressional action.”

May 06, 2011

The Office of Naval Research is offering a Sponsoring Scholars in Science Awards program to generate projects that cultivate student interest and participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), as part of a Navy-wide educational initiative. Up to 10 proposals will earn awards of $100,000 each in seed funding for further research and development of initiatives supporting K-12, higher education and educational research.

The federal Research Terms and Conditions are a standard core set of administrative terms and conditions on research and research-related awards that are subject to OMB Circular A-­110, ‘‘Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements With Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals, and Other Non-Profit Organizations’’ (2 CFR part 215).

The NSF announcement stated that ‘‘While there were NO changes made to the actual side-by-side version of the Research Terms, since the appendices are formally a part of the Research Terms, the document was simply re-dated and reposted to the NSF website. Using the date of June 2011 will provide sufficient time for all agencies to make any necessary changes to their systems to adjust to this new date.’’

NSF included a summary of the significant changes made to the Appendices:

Changes made to Appendix B: Subaward Requirements

Updated USDA/CSREES to reflect name change to USDA/NIFA, and other associated changes

Changes made to Appendix C: National Policy Requirements Matrix

New Categories of Requirements:

Created New Category, Health and Safety Standards

Created New Category, National Security Guidelines

Created New Category, General/Miscellaneous Requirements, and alphabetized listing of items that fall under this category

Federal-wide Requirements:

Added DUNS requirement

Added CCR requirement

Added FFATA

Added Hotel and Motel Fire Safety Act

Added Text Messaging While Driving

Added Prohibition on ACORN funding

Updated assurance language for NEPA to read: “Before a funding decision is made by the federal agency, identify to the awarding agency all potential impacts this award may have on”